The purpose of this masters thesis is to examine the arguments that are being used when closing and establishing peoples libraries. During the 90:ies, in the community of Gothenburg, 4 public libraries were closed and another 3 public libraries were opened. A possible reason for this change lies in the reform from the city Committee that split the community of Gothenburg into 21 pieces; all with one centrally appointed political Committee. The library activity has since the reform was implemented got worse in some areas, foremost in the already neglected city sections, and better in some areas, which where able to establish new libraries. Argumentation analysis indicates that the arguments used at closure where mainly economical and neither the number nor relevance and validity of the arguments where good.

Outdoor advertising is not very often discussed within city planning even though the commercial messages occupy much of public space. The advertising signs affects not only the physical environment but also social life. In this report I would like to acknowledge and question the presence of advertising in our everyday environment. Outdoor advertising is not a new phenomena, technical progress however, results constantly in new expansions in the environment. Today advertising occurs in all sorts of shapes in the cities, both as free standing signs and as signs attached to facades, incorporated in city furniture such as bus shelters and on vehicles moving along the city streets. Grouping advertising into two categories; local and national, reveals that the different categories have different impact on public space.

The right to the city has lately become the rallying cry for many urban social movements all over the world to challenge neoliberal planning, gentrification, the privatization of urban commons and growing spatial and social gaps in city and society. This senior essay studies urban social movements that in different ways advocate the idea of the right to the city. The term right to the city was coined in the late 1960s by French urban theorist Henri Lefebvre, who promoted the idea of the city as a common, a space belonging to everyone. The right to the city is not ?a return to traditional cities?, but ?a right to urban life? (1996:158).This study focuses on the city of Hamburg.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the functions of the public library for parents of infants and how they see the ideal library. The research questions are: How do parents of infants use the library and what are their experience of it? What opinions and wishes do parents of infants have regarding the library? How can library services be developed to better match the needs of the parents of infants? The theoretical approach is based on Marianne Andersson and Dorte Skot-Hansen?s model of the public library?s functions and the model of classification by Ellen-Merete Duvold and Gunnar Sæbø. To answer my research questions I have carried out three focus-group interviews with parents of infants. The study revealed that the public library functions as a cultural centre, a social centre, a knowledge centre and, to a certain extent, an information centre for the parents.

Hur förenar man på bästa sätt två skilda funktionsprogram, privata och allmänna intressen på en central plats i Stockholms citykärna?.

This essay investigates the statements of Växjö municipality?s motives for some of its many environmental projects. The aim of the essay is to be theory-testing as to see how a municipality/city which promotes itself as being ?green? motivates its efforts in the environmental area. Växjö city promotes itself as ?The greenest city in Europe?, an award appointed to the city by BBC and other international media.

This master thesis is a study of how city cemeteries can be used and contributes to a socially sustainable urban development. Today sustainable development and sustainable urban development is something that more or less every organization is working with. Therefore it is also relevant to integrate our cemeteries in this work so that they can become a part of the sustainable urban development process.The thesis gives a basic understanding of sustainability as a concept and also defines socially sustainable (urban) development. The work then immerse itself in various types of park structures and how the relationship between the human individual and the public space work, to satisfy the needs that different people have.The literature study that has been made is also the base for the design of the walking interview that has been made for the two city cemeteries. The cemeteries that where studied where the Assistens cemetery in Copenhagen and the Eastern cemetery in Gothenburg.

The goal with my project was to explore what it is that distinguishes Berlin as a city and then translate that into abstract patterns. The patterns are made for wallpaper and are presented in a book as a collection.After spending six months almost constantly abroad visiting many different citys I began to wonder what it is that makes a city unique. Sometimes it feels as though cities are reduced to the sum of their famous sights. But of course a city is more than that. It?s the people who live in it, the history, architecture and culture.

Abstract Contemporary cities find themselves today in a fierce competition against other cities over company establishment and in -migration. In this competition, the city?s main objective is to become an attractive site of capital accumulation.  As this happens, the pressure on the vulnerable groups in society increases, leading to a social geographic polarization. I have examined how the shift towards neoliberalism has affected a city on the fringe as Kalmar. How is the postindustrial urban space constructed? I found this important to analyze since it put two important questions in the light: For whom, and for which purpose do we build the city today? My questions have been:v  What are Kalmar municipality?s strategies to develop Kalmar?v  What are the results of this strategy in the urban space?v  What are the consequences of this strategy?The research has been a case study of the city of Kalmar with a qualitative deductive approach where David Harvey?s theories about the city in a capitalist system have been the underpinning structure.

Sustainable development and sustainability is nowadays expected to be integratedin modern city planning and permeate the entire planning process. At the sametime, sustainable development has an inherent vagueness, leading to a greatdiversity of interpretations of the meaning of this concept. In this thesis strongsustainability and ecological modernization are used as two different interpretationsof sustainable development. Using these two interpretations, an analysis of thecurrent use of the concept of sustainability within the city planning of Malmö isperformed. The analysis shows that the interpretation of sustainable development inthe city of Malmö can be deduced to ecological modernization and thatsustainability is looked upon as one way to improve the attractiveness of the city.Investments to increase ecological and social sustainability must be legitimized asleading to a potential increase in economical sustainability (growth) and the focusof increasing the sustainability in the city has shifted from ecological aspects toeconomical aspects.

This thesis deals with urban planning in connection with social and spatial integration.It´s a study of a new planning project in Malmö in southern Sweden. It´s an interesting case because this new, fashionable area will be located next to areas facing socio-economical challanges and stagnation. By using two theoretical models I analyse how the visions for planning a city are formulated and applied when policy is going to be operated. My models are ?the balanced community? and ?the dual community? .The conclusion is that the focus for Malmö and Hyllie is going towards emphasing the creation of attractive but segregated districs in a city.

The purpose of this study is to examine some after-school teachers? perceptions about the outdoor stay at the after-school care centre in the schoolyard and in the leisure- environment.Five semi-structured interviews were conducted with the after-school teachers at five after-school care centres in the Stockholm area.In the theoretical part presents the leisure- governance and ongoing research on outdoor learning, research on the school playground and kindergarten local environment affects children in their development and learning, and after-school teachers? professional identity.The theoretical foundation is based on the phenomenographic approach.The questions are:? What is outdoor education according to the after-school teachers?? According to after-school teachers, what educational opportunities are provided by the schoolyard and the local environment?? How do the after-school teachers use the schoolyard and local environment?The result shows that outdoor education can be a knowledge invigorating complement to the indoor teaching and a way for the after-school centre to supplement the compulsory schoolday. The play outdoors can help to increase children's social development, creativity and imagination. The after-school teachers used the schoolyard and local environment for various purposes which may be due to different circumstances, knowledge and experience to carry out educational activities outdoors. But it may also depend on whether the after-school teacher focuses on the regular school day or in the afternoon at the after-school care centre..

In May 2010 the plans for Malmö?s new Concert Hall, Conference Centre and Hotel were announced publically. The purpose of this thesis was to present strategy for communication in order to gain approval for the new concert and conference center from the inhabitants inMalmö and to incorporate the use of it in their everyday life.Material from the receiver?s as well as the sender?s perspective has been collected from qualitative interviews. Through group interviews we have investigated the general consensus of the inhabitants of Malmö regarding the investment, placing, offered events, expectations as well as how they collected information.

Syftet med min analys är att se via en neoformalistisk stilanalys vilka grepp som filmen Sin City har hämtat från film noir. Jag ser även via intertextuella kopplingar vad Sin City har hämtat från serietidningen som filmen baseras på. Fokus i analysen ligger dock på fyra grepp som jag anser är de mest klassiska film noirgreppen; Ljussättning, Femme fatale, en mörk värld och protagonisten. Jag kommer bl.a. fram till att Sin Citys använder sig av klassiska film noirstilgrepp men drar dem till det extrema, kanske för att passa in på den serievärld som filmen är länkad till.

The development of higher education in Sweden poses new demands on higher education libraries. One way of meeting these demands has been to develop Learning Resource Centres (LRC), a concept that is relatively new in Sweden.The aim of this Master's thesis is to identify how the LRC-concept has been designed and integrated in three Swedish higher education institutions: Stockholms universitet, Lärarhögskolan i Stockholm and Göteborgs universitet. The thesis also aims at investigating what the Learning Resource Centres mean to the seats of learning, and in turn, the views of concerned parties in relation to the integration.The method used for the study is qualitative and based on interviews conducted with Learning Resource Centre staff, academic staff and principles or deans. In addition to this, strategic documents from the examined seats of learning are studied.Even though most Swedish Learning Resource Centres have used British Sheffield Hallam University's Adsetts Centre as their model, our study shows that the Swedish Learning Resource Centres of today have developed in various ways, due to local conditions; therefore, there is no definitive model for Swedish LRCs.In our opinion, one of the most important characteristics of a LRC should be its integration in the academic life of its university. There does not seem to be a "recipe" of how to conduct this integration.